Abraxalito is right to this extent:
Supply creates demand.
If the product does not exist, then there is no demand.
So if you're going to market you will have convictions and will take risk.
Only a half-truth. True, often a new type of product can create a demand which previously did not exist. These days, it's a chore just to think of something that does not exist and would be interesting to people.
Then you have to get the design right, both technically and in looks. Then you have to assume the initial series volume, so you can have an idea of what it will cost. Then you have to have a bundle of money to make it truly known, i.e. for some pretty nifty advertising. Then you sit and pray it catches on. In the meanhile, you go to every fair and village road show you can to have it seen by as many as you can. All off which once again costs a bundle.
If you have the bundle, either yours or from venture capital, then this becomes a distinct possibility.
If you do not, then you're just daydreaming.
Do not compare this with the advent of Apple because the conditions are totally different. Apple started out when the very idea of a PC was new, when we had a new PC magazine appear every day and all of them couldn't print enough to satisfy our fancy as it was 30 years ago.
Today, we have an entirely different situation. The audio market is shrinking, not expanding. The gadgets market is several hundred times greater today than it was. And while you do have the Internet to show your wares, so does everybody else, and you end up swamped by hundreds of others who are after the same customers you are.
Then, we had an economic boom, expansion, today, we have an economic crisis and contraction. Don't kid yourselves, this one isn't going away for at least 4 or 5 years, before things really start moving on up again.
Don't get me wrong, far from me be it that I should want to discourage anyone, but beside Abraxalito's flamboyant can-can dancing with cryptic messages saying next to nothing, and his obvious good will, I see nothing to support his optimisim. And I have been self-employed all my life, so don't tell me I have no experience.
It looks one way on paper, but in real life, it's always something completely different. And you are working with people, so it's quite possible that even if it does take off, you may find yourself ripped off by your co-workers. Even the competition is not the same any more, today there are far less rules to protect you. And those that do exist are rather open to interpretation by sleazy lawyers fuelled by money only.
And lastly, put simply, you need balls of brass, not glass, to fully and truly commit yourself to anything on a do or die basis. To put your entire life on the line. When the chips are down, VERY few people can do actually do that, most shy away.
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None. It wasn't a commercial product. GUI in proto form dates back further to SRI.
Hi,
Not just today. High power "HiFi" tube Amp's go back to the 70's (for PA to the 1930's). Even Carver had one in those days.
Ciao T
Not just today. High power "HiFi" tube Amp's go back to the 70's (for PA to the 1930's). Even Carver had one in those days.
Ciao T
Which is all fine and dandy coz its clear to me you're not lookingBut I do agree - its one thing to talk the talk, and quite another to walk the walk.
I generally can't be bothered to decypher highly coded messages. In addition to that, I generally don't put much trust in anyone unable to express his message in simple and clear terms.
Ok, so I'm stupid - please draw it for me, what is the revolutionary idea you plan to market? What is its novelty and what are its advantages and disadvantages, as you see them today?
Can you do that?
Its not so much revolutionary as evolutionary. And its not a single idea - rather its the creation of an ecosystem. Think ARM's digital ecosystem, this will be both a subset and an extension of that, devoted to digital audio. You can find more details on my blog if you're interested - the entry from last summer titled 'Yesterday in the park'. It has sociological as well as technical dimensions.
The novelty is really that its an architecture or framework to DIY decent-sounding digital audio systems in the first instance. Digital audio really took a wrong turn when low-bit converters came out and has not recovered its pace. DIYers haven't been supported much in terms of being able to create their own fully digital systems, so I plan to help out there. If you visualize the opamp's role in enabling the masses to design analog audio, I'd like to create something similar for digital. The hardware won't be 'open-source' in the traditional sense but the designs will be open.
As regards the market, its not traditional audiophile as I've already hinted - this is going to be a service available to custom installers here in China in the first instance. Custom install is a vast untapped market here, even though its fairly mature in USA and a bit less so in UK.
T,
I think we are talking past each other here, I do agree that high powered tube amplifiers are not new, i had a few in the 70's, there are a few companies still making such today, it is just not common place.
One is more likely to see 100 watt/ch or lower tube amplifiers than above today.
Hi,
High Powered HiFi Tube Amp's where always somewhat rare, but all the big names in tubes have such massive behemoth that are well > 100W (ch), from Audio Research to VTL and Ypsilon... You may need to read more audio comics, they tend to celebrate these monstrosities.
I tend to view the need for such big amp's (tube or transistors) simply as a failure of designing decent speakers, but that's just me...
5" Woofer and Softdome Tweeter... What's that supposed to be? A toy for my daughter? The dimensions seem right.
Ciao T
High Powered HiFi Tube Amp's where always somewhat rare, but all the big names in tubes have such massive behemoth that are well > 100W (ch), from Audio Research to VTL and Ypsilon... You may need to read more audio comics, they tend to celebrate these monstrosities.
I tend to view the need for such big amp's (tube or transistors) simply as a failure of designing decent speakers, but that's just me...
5" Woofer and Softdome Tweeter... What's that supposed to be? A toy for my daughter? The dimensions seem right.
Ciao T
MUCH better, thank you, now I get the picture. And only now does it make sense.
Sounds good - go for it.
SUPPLY CREATES DEMAND
Ought to move this discussion to its own thread because it's really very interesting and lots of folk here have an opinion.
There can be no demand for a product which is not yet produced.
If it's not yet produced, it's metaphysical.
Example: Trips to the moon. If someone was providing them, there would be a demand, I'm sure, even if the fare was tens of millions of dollars per passenger.
I'm also sure, if it could be done in comfort, in a nicely appointed space cruiser with family packages, for thousands of dollars, there would be a million-fold greater demand.
But right now there is no demand for moon trips cuz there's no supply. The "product" is metaphysical and so is the "demand."
Companies spend millions of dollars on market research to try and quantify demand for product but unless that product is produced and marketed, they don't really know what the demand is.
Regarding S. Jobs. He did not know what the demand for his products would be and they weren't all successful. What he had was conviction. But even conviction is not necessary, always.
Craig of Craig's List did not even have a conviction. He made something for the use of himself and his friends and he found there was such a demand he could charge for it. Who knew?
Who knew, at the beginning of the 19th century that by the end of the century there would be a market for millions of pianos? Broadwood thought he could make and sell pianos. He sold them through promotion and marketing. He gave pianos to prestigious musicians, he made connections with 19th century Christian figures for whom devotional music was important, he took on small town church choir masters as agents, he made sure his pianos were beautiful to look at. He gave the product prestige and desirability. He had "luck" in that the middle class, which he belonged to, was growing exponentially and had aspiration.
The world is developing and folk still have aspirations. Nothing essential has changed, but now there is the internet.
The internet gives individuals, companies and communities reach and flexibility almost inconceivable in previous times. There is no good reason to think that someone with a superior product for reproducing music at high quality can not connect with folk who want to buy it.
dvv, I think I know what Abraxalito is up to. I've read his blogs and posts but I'm not going to blow his gaff.
Well, I see he's done it himself.
Ought to move this discussion to its own thread because it's really very interesting and lots of folk here have an opinion.
There can be no demand for a product which is not yet produced.
If it's not yet produced, it's metaphysical.
Example: Trips to the moon. If someone was providing them, there would be a demand, I'm sure, even if the fare was tens of millions of dollars per passenger.
I'm also sure, if it could be done in comfort, in a nicely appointed space cruiser with family packages, for thousands of dollars, there would be a million-fold greater demand.
But right now there is no demand for moon trips cuz there's no supply. The "product" is metaphysical and so is the "demand."
Companies spend millions of dollars on market research to try and quantify demand for product but unless that product is produced and marketed, they don't really know what the demand is.
Regarding S. Jobs. He did not know what the demand for his products would be and they weren't all successful. What he had was conviction. But even conviction is not necessary, always.
Craig of Craig's List did not even have a conviction. He made something for the use of himself and his friends and he found there was such a demand he could charge for it. Who knew?
Who knew, at the beginning of the 19th century that by the end of the century there would be a market for millions of pianos? Broadwood thought he could make and sell pianos. He sold them through promotion and marketing. He gave pianos to prestigious musicians, he made connections with 19th century Christian figures for whom devotional music was important, he took on small town church choir masters as agents, he made sure his pianos were beautiful to look at. He gave the product prestige and desirability. He had "luck" in that the middle class, which he belonged to, was growing exponentially and had aspiration.
The world is developing and folk still have aspirations. Nothing essential has changed, but now there is the internet.
The internet gives individuals, companies and communities reach and flexibility almost inconceivable in previous times. There is no good reason to think that someone with a superior product for reproducing music at high quality can not connect with folk who want to buy it.
dvv, I think I know what Abraxalito is up to. I've read his blogs and posts but I'm not going to blow his gaff.
Well, I see he's done it himself.
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I disagree, the very fact that we went to the moon was because there was a demand.
Supply vs demand dictates the price, which is why the space program cost millions and millions of dollars when it started out.
I would argue that there are lots of people who want to go to the moon in 2012.
The only thing stopping them is money.
Space vehicles have come way down in price compared to Apollo missions. There are lots of smaller private companies or countries that launch satellites on a monthly basis.
People have wanted the iPhone ever since Captain Kirk flipped open the first communicator.
There is loads of demand for products which have not been developed. I am forever going into a store looking for something that is not available. A couple of my ideas were picked up and produced. Probably not from my single voice, but from mine and many more.
A lot more products have no demand until they are revealed. iPad is a classic example. No one new we needed one. A few million later, we all know we need one.
A lot more products have no demand until they are revealed. iPad is a classic example. No one new we needed one. A few million later, we all know we need one.
Ah yes, the Silver 7. A demonstration of how big his ego was that he could build a great tube amp and make his cheap switcher sound like it. Well, it was a great tube amp, I give him full marks on that.
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